This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records. If you find an item that matches what you are searching for, cutting and pasting the subject terms for that item into the index terms search field will bring up similar results.

Older documents in the archives often reference street designations as they appeared before the city changed its directional scheme in 1961. These maps show the designations before and after the change.

Descriptions of the types of materials cataloged in each database can be found here.

Research Tips & Tools

Search Tips - Annexed Cities Ordinances

Starting Your Search

Title Words: Will retrieve results only when your search terms appear in the title.

Index Terms: Will retrieve results if your keywords match subject terms used in cataloging the publication. See Index Terms below for further explanation.

Ordinance No.: Useful if you know the number of the ordinance you're looking for.

All Index Words: Searching only on this field will retrieve the broadest results, as the database will bring up records where your search terms appear in any of the fields. If you get too many results with this method, you may want to narrow your search using one or more of the first three search boxes.

Documents per Page: You can also choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list. Each item will include the ordinance number and title. Clicking on the title will bring up a description of the ordinance, including date passed and subject terms. However, it does not link to a digitized version of the file. If you would like to view an ordinance in the research room, please provide Archives staff with the ordinance number.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "streets.ti." will retrieve all records where the word "streets" appears in the Title field. Field names for the Annexed Cities Ordinance Indexes are:

TYPE

Document Type

CBN

Council Bill Number

ORDN

Ordinance Number

SPON

Sponsor

COMM

Committee Referral

STAT

Document Status

DATC

Document Creation Date

DATM

Document Modification Date

DTIR

Introduction/Referral Date

DT2R

Second Reading Date

DT3R

Third Reading Date

DTA

Mayor's Sig./Approval Date

DTV

Veto Date

DTS

Sustained Date

DTO

Overridden Date

DTF

Date Filed

TI

Title

REF

References/Related Documents

INDX

Index Terms

MISC

Comments

VOTE

Vote Count

USR

User ID of Creator/Modifier

DTSI

Date Passed

DTMY

Date Presented to Mayor

DTLW

Effective Date (becomes law)

PUB

Publication information

PG

Pages

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to any of the date fields, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000

This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Archives Guide

Enter any keyword into the search box to bring up records that contain that word. You can choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list. Each item will include the agency that created the records, followed by the name of the record series. Clicking on the series name will bring up a description of the series, including dates, volume of material, description, and subject terms. Many records have links to a full list of folder titles within the series. The ID at the top of the page is the unique identifier for the record series; use this six-digit number with Archives staff if you have a question or request pertaining to these records.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "police.sub." will retrieve all records where the word "police" appears in the Subject field. Field names for the Archives Guide are:

TI

Title

ID

Record Series ID

GRP

Record group

VOL

Volume

DES

Series description

FA

Finding aids available

SUB

Subject terms

YRS

Years

GTI

Group record title

GNAM

Group record name

GDES

Group description

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to the Years field, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000

This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Audio

Starting Your Search

Enter search terms: Enter keywords or index terms in the search box. For example, you can search on the word "police," which will bring up any record with that word in it, or you can search on the subject term "chief-of-police," which will bring up any record about the Police Chief.

Time period: You may narrow your search by choosing a specific time period from the drop-down box.

Documents per page: You can also choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list of events with audio recordings on that subject. The list provides the number of the recording, the date, the entity holding the meeting, and a brief description. Clicking on the event will provide a fuller description of the event, the duration, and the CD numbers for the event. Information on whether or not minutes or agendas are available for the event is also included.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "westlake.nob." will retrieve all records where the word "westlake" appears in the name of the body holding the meeting or hearing. Field names for the Audio Index are:

RECD

Unique identifier for recording

NOB

Name of body holding meeting

NOE

Name of event

NOP

Name of production

DATE

Date of event

PLAC

Place of event

RECO

Recordist name

AGMI

Agenda and/or minutes available?

TRAN

Transcript available?

DURA

Running time of recording in form HH:MM:SS

SUBJ

Subject terms from Clerk's thesaurus

SPEK

Speaker list in order of appearance if known

SERS

Record series

DICO

Digital copies

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to the Date field, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000

This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Folklife Audio Collection

Enter search terms: Enter any word into the search box. You can search on name, type of music, instrument, band name, or style of music.

Documents per page: Choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results by using the "Documents per Page" box.

Full Record: You can choose to display the full record which contains more information about the recording.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list of identification numbers, performer, and date. Clicking on the number will give you a full description of the performance. The recordings are available for listening in the research room at the Seattle Municipal Archives.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. For example, searching on "bittersweet.perf." will retrieve all records where the name Bittersweet is listed as the Performer. Some of the field names useful to search for the Folklife Audio Index are:

Search Tips - General Files

Starting Your Search

You may enter keywords in any or all of the search boxes:

Words Anywhere: Searching only on this field will retrieve the broadest results, as the database will bring up records where your search terms appear in any of the fields. If you get too many results with this method, you may want to narrow your search using one or more of the other search boxes.

Title Words: Will retrieve results only when your search terms appear in the title field.

Subject Terms: Will retrieve results if your keywords match subject terms used in cataloging the publication. See Index Terms below for further explanation.

File Number: Useful if you know the file number you're looking for.

Time Period: You may narrow your search by choosing a specific time period from the drop-down box.

Documents per Page: You can also choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list. Each item will include the document title, date, file number, and box and folder number. Clicking on the title will bring up the full record, including a description of the document, subject terms, and names appearing in the file. If you would like Archives staff to retrieve a file for use in the research room, they will need to know the file number and/or box and folder number.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "sewers.ti." will retrieve all records where the word "sewers" appears in the Title field. Field names for the General Files Index are:

NUM

File number

BGYR

Beginning year

ENYR

Ending year

DATE

Main Date in form YYYYMMDD

TI

Title

FORM

Form and date of documents

ITEM

Number of items in file

NOTE

Notes

SUB

Subject

NAME

Personal names

CORP

Corporate names

BOX

Box number

FOLD

Folder number

SER

Series code

FC

File code

INFO

Series information link

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to the Years field, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000

This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Maps

Starting Your Search

You may enter keywords or index terms in the search box. For example, you can search on the word "housing," which will bring up any record with that word in it. Or you can search on the subject term "military-housing," "public-housing," or "low-income-housing," which will provide more specific searches on housing. See "Index Terms" below.

Neighborhood area: You may limit results to one neighborhood area.

Map Category: You may limit your search regarding two large categories of maps: the Cedar River Watershed Maps and Zoning maps. Zoning maps can be further refined by 1923, 1947 or 1973.

Documents per page: Choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results by using the "Documents per Page" box.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list of maps which provides the item number of the maps, the date, and title of the map. A blue box will appear if there is a digital image of the map. Clicking on the map title will provide a fuller description of the map, and a digital copy, where available. About 75% of the map records provide a digital copy of the map online. The zoning and watershed maps are high enough resolution to be used online. The other maps are intended as reference copies; researchers may need to visit the Archives to use the maps. Three different resolutions of the digital copies of maps are available online.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "sewer.ti." will retrieve all records where the word "sewer" appears in the title of the map. Field names for the Map Index are:

ID

Document ID

CAB

Cabinet number

CONT

Box/container

FOLD

Folder

ONUM

Original number

SER

Series ID

ACCN

Accession number

TI

Title

AU

Author

CITY

City of publication

PUBL

Publisher

PHYS

Physical description

SCAL

Scale

SCOP

Scope/theme information

YEAR

Year of publication

DATE

Date of publication

LDAT

Date of last change

SUB

Subject terms

PNOT

Physical notes

COND

Condition

PW

Part/whole relationship

OTH

Other related items

NOTE

Content notes

DI

Digital image availability

LOC

Location

POL

Polarity

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to any of the date fields, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000

This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Motion Picture Film

Starting Your Search

Words in film description: Enter any word into the first search box to bring up films that have descriptive data containing that word.Subject terms: Will retrieve results if your keywords match subject terms used in cataloging the publication. See Index Terms below for further explanation.Limit search to main topic: You may search all films or limit your search to a specific topic from the drop down menu, such as "Streets and Traffic."Time period: You may narrow your search by choosing a specific time period from the drop-down box.Documents per page: Choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results by using the "Documents per Page" box.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list of films and associated item numbers. Clicking on the film title will provide a fuller description of the film, including the producer, the date, length and running time, color or black and white, silent or sound, and whether or not there is a digital copy.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "col.col.." will retrieve all films in color; a search on "bw.col." will retrieve all black and white films. Field names for the Archives Motion Picture Film Index are:

ID

Item Number

TI

Film title

INDX

Subject terms

SERS

Record Series ID

ONUM

Original ID Number

ACNO

Accession Number

DCOV

Coverage Date

DATF

Creation Date

NATR

Nature of film

COL

Color of film

CON

Box Number

NOTE

Notes

CRED

Main Credits

TIME

Running Time

COND

Condition

CONN

Condition notes

SND

Sound

SNDQ

Sound Quality

SPD

Projection speed

LANG

Language

NAMS

Names

PRFM

Film Format

DOFT

Digtal Format

PLAC

Place of publication

VFC

Format

ASPR

Aspect Ratio

PERM

Permissions

URL

URL

CPTP

Copy Type

CPFT

Copy Format

CPLC

Copy Location

DOGR

Generator

SUM

Summary of film's contents

ACMT

Accompanying material

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to the Date field, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Photographs

Starting Your Search

Enter search terms: Enter any word into the first search box to bring up photos that have descriptive data containing that word.Time period: You may narrow your search by choosing a specific time period from the drop-down box.Neighborhood district: You may also limit results to one neighborhood district.Documents per page: Choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results by using the "Documents per Page" box. If you have a high-speed internet connection, you may wish to select a higher number.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as thumbnail images with some basic information to the right. Click on the image to see a larger view along with the full catalog record. The Item Number is the image's unique identifier; use this number with Archives staff if you have a question or request pertaining to an image.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

House Photos

Information on how to find a photo of a house may be found elsewhere on this website.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Neighborhoods

Neighborhood districts are determined using the Seattle City Clerk's Office Neighborhood Map Atlas. If your search on a specific neighborhood isn't bringing up the results you expect, you may want to consult the atlas to check the name we have used for the area.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. For example, searching on "jones.phot." will retrieve all records where the name Jones appears in the Photographer field. Field names for the Photograph Index are:

ID

Record Series ID

DES

Item description

SUB

Subject terms

BOX

Box Number

NUM

Item Number

ONUM

Original ID Number

DATE

Date

TYPE

Item Type

NP

Negative/Positive

SIZE

Size code

CON

Condition

NOTE

Notes

ACC

Accession Number

CONN

Condition notes

PR

Print

DI

Digital image

OTH

Other related item number

NAME

Names

PHOT

Photographer

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to the Date field, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000 This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Published Documents

Words in Title: Will retrieve results only when your search terms appear in the title.

Words in Author Name: Will retrieve results only when your search terms appear in the author field.

Index Terms: Will retrieve results if your keywords match subject terms used in cataloging the publication. See Index Terms below for further explanation.

Words Anywhere: Searching only on this field will retrieve the broadest results, as the database will bring up records where your search terms appear in any of the fields. If you get too many results with this method, you may want to narrow your search using one or more of the first three search boxes.

Documents per Page: You can also choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list. Each item will include the document number, publication title, and author. Clicking on the title will bring up the full catalog record for the publication, including dates, number of pages, and subject terms. The Item Number at the bottom of the catalog record is the unique identifier for the document; use this number with Archives staff if you would like to have a document pulled for use in the research room.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Index Terms

If your keywords are not retrieving the results you expect, you may want to browse our thesaurus. This is a list of standardized subject terms we use to maintain consistency in our cataloging. For example, we use the term "landfills"; if you are searching on "dumps," your search may not bring up all the relevant records.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "development.ti." will retrieve all records where the word "development" appears in the Title field. Field names for the Archives Guide are:

ID

Document ID

TI

Title

UTI

Uniform title

AU

Author

UAU

Uniform author

SPON

Sponsor

CITY

City of publication

PUBL

Publisher

YEAR

Year of publication

DATE

Date of publication

PNO

Publication number

NOTE

Content notes

SUB

Subject terms

LOC

Location

PHYS

Physical description

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to the Date field, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000

This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Search Tips - Subject Files

Starting Your Search

Enter any keyword into the search box to bring up records that contain that word. You can choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list. Each item will include four pieces of information: the record series number, which will be a six-digit number in the form of 0000-00; the box and folder number, expressed as 1/1 (this would be box 1, folder 1); the dates covered by materials in that file; and the folder title. If you would like Archives staff to retrieve a file for use in the research room, they will need to know the record series number and the box/folder number.

Wild Cards

These two characters can be helpful if you're uncertain of the spelling of a name or word, or if you want to bring up records that contain related words with the same stem.

?: A question mark matches any single character.

$: A dollar sign matches any ending to a word root.

For example:

theat?? : matches theater or theatre

theat$ : matches theater, theatre, theatrical, etc.

Clicking on the record series number will bring you to a description of the series as a whole, including the creating agency. Clicking on the folder title will bring up a record for that folder. This will sometimes provide additional information about the file. However, it does not link to a digitized version of the file.

Index Terms

This database does not include standardized subject terms from our thesaurus, only the folder titles themselves. You may need to be creative in your search terms to retrieve all the records on a particular topic. For example, some agencies may have used the term "waterfront" in their folder titles while others used "harborfront." You would need to search on both terms to retrieve all the files that may pertain to that subject.

Advanced Searching

By default the search operator "and" is inserted between any two terms entered into the search field. This means that if you enter more than one search term, only records containing all of those terms will be retrieved. Some terms will help further define your search:

or: Connecting search terms with "or" will retrieve records that contain any one of the terms.

"": Quotation marks can be used around a phrase to bring up records containing that exact phrase.

near: Using "near" to connect search terms will retrieve records where those terms appear in the same sentence (in any order). To be more precise, you may add a number; for example, "near3" will retrieve records containing the two terms within three words of each other.

Note that the words and, or, near, with, and same are not searchable terms.

Restricting a Search to a Database Field

Sometimes it is helpful to restrict a search to a certain field in a database record. To do this, enter your search term followed by a dot, then the field code, then another dot. Searching on "1952.bgyr." will retrieve all records where the beginning of the file's date span is 1952. Field names for the Subject File Index are:

SER

Series code

BOX

Box number

FOLD

Folder number

BGYR

Beginning year

ENYR

Ending year

TI

Title

FC

File code

NUM

Associated file number

SUB

Subject

INFO

Series information link

SCAN

Link to digital content

Searching by Date

To retrieve items from a particular year or span of years, restrict the search to the Beginning Year or End Year field, in combination with any other fields, using the following format:@date>=19770000 and @date<=19790000

This example would retrieve all items published in 1977 and 1978. 1977 is the year, the next four digits represent the month and day; using zeros requires the search to include the entire year.

Searching for digital content

To retrieve all digital content search: $PDF.SCAN. You can narrow this search by combing it with a series number.

Search Tips - WTO Accountability Review Committee Documents

Words Anywhere: Enter any word into the first search box to bring up items that have descriptive data containing that word.

Title Words: You may narrow your search by searching on any word that appears only in the title of the document.

Subject Terms: You may also refine your search using terms from the WTO thesaurus. Click on "Subject Terms" on the search page to get a list of terms.

Words in Author Name: This list is useful to obtain the correct form of agency or departmental names and to browse for names.

Words in All Names: You can search on all name fields (author, persons named, intended recipient, etc.) by entering names in this field.

Document Type: All documents were classified by type (e.g., business card, press release, video). Use the drop-down list if you would like to narrow your search to a specific type of document.

Documents per page: Choose the number of documents that will appear on each page of your search results by using the "Documents per Page" box.

Search Behavior: You can search for every word in your search, wherever it appears, by leaving the default operator in the optional settings at "and" where it is by default. If you would like to search on one word or another, but not both together, choose "or." For example, you could enter "anarchist pepper" in the title field, choose "or" as the default operator and only get titles with "anarchist" where "pepper" does not appear and "pepper" in the title where "anarchist" does not appear. If you would like to search on two words only if they are near each other, in any order, choose the "adj" connector.

Search Results

Your search results will appear as a list with the item number, title, author and file location information. Click on the item to get a fuller description that includes all persons named in the document, length, and other information.

WTO documents are not available online; you must come to the Seattle Municipal Archives to view them. To request items you would like to see you will need the item number and the title (for example: arc7969, SPD 13, Unsorted). All items are from the WTO Accountability Review Committee Document Catalog, Record Series 1802-K1, Clerk File 304446.